Makomo felt her breath catch. Instinctively, she activated her Breathing Technique, two streams of white mist flowing from her nostrils as she darted aside with the agility of an ape, barely evading Kurozawa's massive hand.
Kurozawa continued his assault: elbow strikes, knee blows, neck-breaking attacks. He used only simple fists and kicks, yet he kept Makomo under relentless pressure. Though she had drawn her sword, it gave her no advantage whatsoever.
During their exchange, Makomo felt like a lone boat cast upon a pitch-black, raging sea, swaying and sinking, liable to be swallowed by thunder and storms at any moment.
That was why she did not want to fight Kurozawa. The pressure he exerted in battle was even more intense than that of her master, Sakonji Urokodaki.
The intensely oppressive training continued until dusk.
By then, the wind blowing down from the mountaintop had turned slightly cool. The sun had retreated behind the curtain, and a crescent moon peeked out.
Under the faint moonlight, even Makomo's swordsman physique, strengthened far beyond that of an ordinary person through Breathing Technique training, was drenched in sweat. She had nearly lost the strength to stand.
She gulped down breaths, struggling to control her rhythm.
Beside her, Kurozawa's breathing was steady, as though he had not fought at all.
He shook his head, somewhat disappointed.
"Makomo, you let your emotions get the better of you too easily."
"During this afternoon's training, you made more than twenty mistakes. Nerves, fear, anger—they all played a part."
"In other words, your mind is unsettled. In a real battle, even twenty lives would not be enough for you."
After being scolded, Makomo forced herself upright and muttered.
Her voice was heavy with exhaustion, stripped of a young girl's usual crispness.
"I didn't want to either. It's probably because I haven't trained enough. If we do this a few more times, I should be able to handle it."
"By the way, Senior Disciple, are you even human? How can your constitution be so ridiculously strong? You're obviously a monster."
"A corpse is talking." Shaking his head again, Kurozawa turned and left.
"Huh? How can you say that? Senior Disciple, wait for me! I'm exhausted!" Makomo hurried after him, but Kurozawa showed no intention of slowing down. His figure soon vanished into the dense forest.
"Honestly, Senior Disciple is always like this." With a slightly aggrieved tone, Makomo slowly headed down the mountain toward the residence at its foot.
She knew Kurozawa's personality. He was usually gentle toward others, but when he became serious, he turned stern. She also knew he meant well, but being reprimanded never felt good.
Kurozawa, who had already gone some distance away, glanced back and let out a soft sigh when he heard Makomo's voice.
"I can't exactly tell you that you died because you lost your mind in battle."
It was not that Kurozawa was harsh. He simply knew that, in this world of savage demons, even a single mistake could not be tolerated.
With his knowledge of the story, he could help Makomo escape disaster. But he would not remain at her side forever. Once she became a true swordsman, she would eventually have to face demons alone.
One mistake meant death. It meant losing someone forever.
"But after nearly a full day of training, my Potential Points only rose by a tiny bit."
Looking at the seven strange symbols appearing in his field of vision, Kurozawa lowered his head and walked toward Sakonji Urokodaki's residence.
On the morning of Kurozawa's twentieth birthday, when he opened his eyes for the first time, he was astonished to find eight strange symbols arranged vertically in the lower-left corner of his vision.
The symbols were translucent gray-white and did not obstruct his sight.
The moment Kurozawa saw them, he understood what they represented, despite never having encountered such symbols before.
Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Skills, Potential, Power of Despair, Power of Species Annihilation.
The first four were physical attributes, which could be represented simply through numerical values.
Kurozawa's current four attributes were Strength 0.33, Constitution 0.41, Agility 0.31, and Intelligence 0.20. According to his investigations and comparisons, the upper limit for ordinary people who had not learned a Breathing Technique was around 0.1.
Skills were abilities Kurozawa had personally mastered. Whenever he shifted his gaze toward the Skills symbol, information on his abilities appeared.
Water Breathing, Fourth Stage (Upgradeable).
Water Breathing Sword Forms, Second Stage (Not Upgradeable).
Potential, however, was a strange attribute. It appeared as a percentage bar. Training his body could earn Potential, and once it reached one hundred percent, it could be used to improve the first five abilities: physical attributes and skill levels.
However, skills involving external objects could not be improved. So Kurozawa later gave up learning the sword and focused on developing his body, only for Sakonji Urokodaki to believe he had gone down the wrong path and become obsessed with physical strength.
At first, Potential accumulated quickly. Relying on it, Kurozawa rapidly raised his Breathing Technique to the fourth stage.
The fourth stage was Total Concentration: Constant, allowing one to maintain the Breathing Technique at all times and grow stronger every moment.
Most of Kurozawa's physical attributes, which exceeded the limits of ordinary people by more than twice, came from Potential upgrades, though some also came from the benefits of Total Concentration: Constant.
For beginners, using a Breathing Technique even once was extremely difficult and exhausting. Prolonged use could cause pain throughout the body; in more severe cases, the liver could rupture, and burst blood vessels were common as well.
Total Concentration: Constant was already a stage beyond ninety-nine percent of swordsmen. Even Kurozawa's master, Sakonji Urokodaki, had only reached the Constant stage with his Breathing Technique.
His Water Breathing could still be improved, but his Potential Points had become increasingly difficult to obtain. He had only accumulated fifty-five so far. At this rate, it would take forever.
There should be other ways to raise Potential Points. Kurozawa already had some ideas, but they still needed to be tested.
As for the two most unusual symbols, Power of Despair and Power of Species Annihilation... Kurozawa understood Power of Despair to some extent and had guesses about Power of Species Annihilation, but he did not dare be certain.
Previously, based on their literal meanings, Kurozawa had conducted many tests to understand those two abilities.
He carried out brutally bloody species massacres.
By drowning and burning them, he destroyed who knew how many ant nests on Mount Sagiri.
During that time, Power of Despair changed. Beneath the symbol appeared branches such as Black-Brown Ants, Carpenter Ants, termites, and more, all displayed with percentage modifiers.
For the termites Kurozawa had harmed most severely, their Power of Despair had reached thirteen points.
When the termites' Power of Despair reached ten points, Kurozawa discovered that whenever he approached them, the pitiful termites became restless, terrified, and frenzied.
Since he had only tormented these insects so far, Kurozawa still had not uncovered what the Power of Despair could truly do. For now, it merely made its victims terribly afraid of him.
As for the Power of Species Annihilation, no matter how Kurozawa experimented, it remained at zero.
But considering its name, along with how Power of Despair manifested itself, perhaps that symbol would never change.
I recommend a promising mystery novel, "In a Bizarre World, I Smash Them to Pieces."
Synopsis: This was a bizarre world. Gods and demons had vanished, while strange horrors ran rampant in reality.
Jiang Li opened his eyes, expressionless.
A strange little boy's marbles...
A faucet watching you in secret late at night...
Jiang Li felt no fear. He suddenly tightened his grip on the massive iron hammer in his hand.
Smash these horrors to pieces!
Before you continue